"What Turns You On!": An Exploration of Urban South African Xhosa and Zulu Youth Texts

Finlayson, Rosalie; Slabbert, Sarah

Language, Culture and Curriculum, v16 n2 p165-172 2003

The status of the current standard African languages has been seriously undermined by factors such as the association of the standardisation process with colonial and neo-colonial structures, the lack of function of the standards and the rise of high status non-standard urban varieties. This paper describes the process leading to and some interesting outcomes drawn from a pilot literary competition whose aim, apart from encouraging urban youth to use the languages they speak everyday in the creation of literature, was to contribute to the development and analysis of oral and literary texts for wider use in urban schools. The literary competition focused on grades 8 and 9 Xhosa and Zulu learners in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal provinces in South Africa. Learners were invited to enter various genres and no subject restrictions were imposed, and consequently any aspect of urban lifestyle could be explored within the theme of each entry. It is anticipated that the final publication of the entries will facilitate the recognition of these urban varieties for use in the curricula of both schools and universities. This could also further result in a perceived increase in the interest of learners and students in both studying and using a more relevant form of the African languages in their day-to-day activities. (Contains 1 table.)